If you like something…

Author Notes: This is a variation on a Mark Bittman recipe from the NY Times. I used olives and lemon in place of chorizo and sherry. I think the slightly sweet earthiness of the garbanzos pairs nicely with the salty olive and bright lemon flavors. - hardlikearmour

Serves 2 (but i could eat the whole batch!)

1/4cup grape seed or olive oil, divided

1 15.5 oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and dried well with paper towels (the drier the better)

black pepper

15 to 20 oil cured salty black olives, coarsely chopped

5ounces container baby spinach or arugula

1tablespoon water

2tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 to 3teaspoons lemon zest

1/4teaspoon crushed red pepper

table salt

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch saute pan over medium-high. Once the oil is shimmering add garbanzo beans, and season with black pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low.

Sauté garbanzo beans shaking the pan occasionally, until they begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the olives. Continue cooking for another 5 to 8 minutes or until garbanzos are crisp. (They won't be crunchy, but they will almost pop when you bite them.) Pour garbanzos and olives into bowl or rimmed plate and set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan, and heat over medium heat. Once the oil is hot add the spinach, water, lemon juice, lemon zest, crushed red pepper, and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Stir spinach occasionally until soft and liquid has evaporated. Add garbanzos and olives back to pan and toss to combine. Serve warm.

I made this tonight and it was wonderful! I'm not sure I was patient enough when cooking the chickpeas, because some had a really wonderful texture and the others were just warm beans - next time I'll be sure and really crisp them up.

We made these tonight to go with our crab "toasties" by Merrill. They were excellent!! I thought we'd have more left over (I upped the recipe to handle about 5 cups of beans) but they were just too popular with our crowd (vacationing at the NC beach). I uploaded a photo :) Thanks!

This looks great. I am much less a fan of canned garbonzos...has anyone tried dried/raw (uncooked) garbonzos that are sprouted as a substitute? The canned beans are missing a lot to me and I do not mind the crunch of sprouted beans. Better yet, let me try this and I will let you know how it works.....sprouting the beans takes a day or so.

Decided not to wait. I didn't have any spinach, but I had a whole bunch of arugula, so used that instead. It was my lunch just now and was just delicious. I'm going to make another batch for tomorrow to take on a hike! Oh, and I can see where theoretically this could serve 2, but I fell in the category of eating the whole batch. Love the combo of garbanzo beans, olives and lemon.

Are you kidding me? I LOVE your recipes! Between that and your comments on Food Pickle, I'm pretty sure you know much more than I. Honestly we're all learning so much from each other - it's one of the (many) things I love about this great site, and what keeps me coming back month after month.